Abstract:
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has recently detected for the first time gravitational waves. The observations have confirmed a key prediction of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, that space-time is a dynamical entity. The detections are also the first direct observation of the collisions of black holes and of a spinning black hole. I will give a tour of this breathtaking discovery that marks the birth of gravitational wave astronomy.
Brief Bio:
Dr. Pablo Laguna is a school chair and professor of Georgia Tech. Physics Department. He has been the director of center for relativistic astrophysics since 2008. He received his PhD from University of Texas at Austin. Before he started as an assistant professor at Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Penn State University, he did three postdoc training in University of Texas at Austin, Drexel University and Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was promoted to be an associated professor at Penn State in 1998 and then became a professor at Penn State in 2000. His research interest is numerical relativity & computational astrophysics simulations of compact object binaries.